Suburban congressional candidates square off in debate

Two suburban Democratic congressional challengers sought Saturday to try to portray their Republican opponents as telling voters one thing while voting the other way in Washington, while the GOP incumbents sought to cast their rivals as having no comprehensive plan to deal with the nation’s financial problems.

Budget issues, including the fate of Medicare, dominated twin televised debates taped for airing Sunday. One featured 11th District candidates Republican Rep. Judy Biggert and Democrat Bill Foster, and the other 10th District candidates Republican Rep. Robert Dold and Democrat Brad Schneider.

Biggert, a congresswoman from Hinsdale, found herself under constant criticism from Foster, a former congressman from Naperville, over her support of a House Republican budget plan authored by GOP vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan. And Schneider, a businessman from Deerfield, was put on the defensive by Dold over the Democrat’s refusal to publicly release his income tax returns.

During the 11th District debate, Biggert at times appeared to struggle with her answers. When told she had the opportunity to ask Foster a question, Biggert took 15 seconds in trying to pose it. After the debate, Biggert told reporters that she had a question in mind but “couldn’t remember what it was.”

In the debate, Biggert accused Foster of “trying to scare seniors” by going after her support of a House GOP plan that would restructure Medicare for people age 54 and under by offering a choice between the current program or a government subsidy for health insurance. Responded Foster: “We should preserve the guaranteed benefit of Medicare.”

Foster also accused Biggert of supporting the federal No Child Left Behind education law but refusing to fully fund it. “This is an example, one among many examples, where Congresswoman Biggert postures one way when she comes home to Illinois and then goes to Washington and votes in exactly the opposite,” Foster said. That prompted Biggert to respond, “That’s really strange. I just received the endorsement of the IEA. That’s the Illinois Education Association of teachers.”

Biggert also bristled from being labeled as a career politician by Democrats. Noting she had served as president of the local Junior League and school board as well as an assistant soccer coach, the 14-year congresswoman who also served seven years in the General Assembly said “all my life, I’ve served the community.”

The 10th District debate saw Schneider defend his decision not to release his income taxes, saying that a financial report filed with the House shows “everything voters will want to know.” Schneider indicated his wife’s financial information was part of the couple’s joint income-tax return. “My wife’s not running for Congress, but she is a professional,” Schneider said. “I believe that she does have a right to a certain degree of privacy.”

That prompted Dold to respond: “The American public, the citizens of the 10th District, Brad’s asking them to trust him. And I’m saying, ‘Release the tax returns. Show us what’s going on. What are you afraid or, more realistically, what are you hiding?’”

Both candidates defended their heavy dose of attack ads.

Dold maintained Schneider wanted to lift all of the President George W. Bush-era tax cuts, while Schneider contended Dold backed oil drilling in Lake Michigan and voted to defund Planned Parenthood. Dold said Schneider’s charges were “patently untrue,” while Schneider said he only wants to end Bush-era tax cuts after the first $250,000 in income.

Schneider acknowledged that Dold “may be the least extreme of an extreme party, but that does not make him a moderate. He has voted with his party on the core issues when they’ve needed him.”

But when Dold asked Schneider to list three issues where he would break from Democratic leadership, the challenger gave no specifics and said, “I’ll work with anyone.”

The 10th District includes the North Shore. The 11th District covers the southwest and far west suburbs. The election is Nov. 6.